JP2000224599A5 - - Google Patents

Description

Further, the configuration of the imaging unit 104 will be described. The image pickup unit 104 responds to each drive signal output from the drive signal generation unit 10C, which will be described later. Imaging unit 104 is mainly the respective light receiving elements 104a of the photodiode, charge coupled device (hereinafter, referred to as CCD) is constituted out with. As shown in FIG. 4, the light receiving element 104a is a signal reading gate (transfer) so as not to leak the signal charge converted by receiving light between the light receiving element 104a and the transfer element arranged adjacent to the light receiving element, that is, the vertical transfer element. Gate) 104b is formed. The signal reading gate 104b transfers the signal charge from the light receiving element 104a to the vertical transfer path 104c by the field shift pulse supplied through the electrode. The vertical transfer path 104c sequentially transfers the read signal charge in the column direction, that is, in the vertical direction. Due to the vertical transfer, the signal charge is supplied to the transfer element in the row direction, that is, the horizontal transfer path 104d via the line shift. The horizontal transfer path 104d responds to the drive signal and outputs this signal charge to the signal processing system 10B via the amplifier 104e as described above.

When the compression / decompression processing unit 118 records an image, the image signal is supplied under the control of the system control unit 12. The supplied image signal is subjected to, for example, compression processing based on the JPEG (Joint Photographic coding Experts Group) standard. Further, when the signal recorded from the recording / reproducing unit 126 is read and reproduced, the original image signal is reproduced by performing signal processing such as the reverse conversion of the compression processing described above, and is output to the display unit 124.

By transferring the signal charge in this way, as shown in FIG. 10, the signal charge is read out only from the light receiving element with the diagonal line. From the arrangement shown in Fig. 10, this 1/2 decimation is a 1/2 decimation in the horizontal and vertical directions. However, in this arrangement, as described above, in the honeycomb arrangement, the pixel shift pitch is shifted by 1/2 pitch in the vertical and horizontal directions. From this , the number of pixels actually read is not the number of pixels thinned out by 1/2 in both horizontal and vertical directions to 1/4 of all pixels. By not reading the signal charge to the vertical transfer element, the transfer element can be treated as "empty" without distinguishing it from the actual signal charge. In other words, in vertical transfer, this signal charge "empty" can be ignored, but in horizontal transfer, the signal charge "empty" also has an "empty" signal charge that occupies the position of one transfer element. The transfer is performed assuming that it is. Therefore, the number of transfer stages in the horizontal direction is the same as when thinning is not performed (see FIGS. 11 (c) and 12 (b)).